Six must-see attractions at the WCG/TGX 2009 show

This year’s World Cyber Games kicked off yesterday, along with the Games Xpo gaming convention, at Suntec Convention Centre Hall 404. The staff from GameSync walked the grounds and found six attractions you should not miss if you’re at the show or in the area. Read on to find out what they are!

World Cyber Games

Singapore is once again hosting the Asian Championships, and that means some 12 countries from all around the Asia-Pacific region will be participating. The crowd drawer will clearly be the DotA Allstars matches, but look out for New Zealand’s Guitar Hero World Tour player who is the defending champion and widely tipped to win.

This year’s WCG Open Category also features Left 4 Dead and Team Fortress 2. We’ve highlighted what you should be looking out for in the two games GameSync covers the most.

Team Fortress 2

If H2H wins their quarter-final match against NfR. (which we predict they will), they will face VCO in the semi-finals in what is going to be the highlight match of the tournament. The two teams are the giants of the Singapore TF2 scene and any matchup will definitely go down to the wire. VCO is famed for being able to make huge comebacks but this time without the double elimination safety net, it is very plausible that H2H could knock VCO down too fast for them to recover.

Left 4 Dead

This game is getting more love than TF2 with one match being put on stage Saturday at 12pm for spectators to gawk at. Teams to look out for are MolotoX, Pandemonium Infected and VertexGirls. But barring any upsets from those teams, the finals looks set to be yet another showdown between top Singapore L4D teams Wallhackers and Vertex. Don’t miss the semi-finals on Sunday at 10am and the finals at 1pm.

Virtualand / K.O. Tournament

Virtualand did the most audacious thing ever seen at a gaming event yet – they brought the arcade right into the exhibition hall. The arcade setup features popular fighting games like Arcana Hearts 2, BlazBlue, King of Fighters XII, Street Fighter IV and Tekken 6 as well as arcade shooter Blazing Storm and racing game Maximum Tune 3, all available to play for tokens which will be purchasable on-site.

For those who love SF4, Saturday will be when the finals for the Knockout tournament as well as the three-nation exhibition match between Japan, South Korea and Singapore. Look out for Laugh representing Korea with Ryu and Itabashi representing Japan with Zangief, with our very own Pei Hoon representing Singapore on Sagat. We hear that Itabashi’s Zangief is a monster, so be sure to catch him in action. Matches start from 1pm on Saturday.

Samsung Mobile Challenge

This year at Samsung’s booth you can enter into the Samsung Mobile Challenge to win for yourself tickets to Chengdu, China to attend the WCG Grand Finals. All you have to do is to go to the booth, talk to one of the friendly booth babes to get them to let you start playing either Asphalt 4 or Wisestar 2 on the new Samsung i8910HD phones. Score well enough and you’ll be called to compete in the finals where the top player will get to fly to China!

If that doesn’t rock your boat, you can feast your eyes on Samsung’s new ultra-thin LED TVs while enjoying freeplay of Guitar Hero World Tour and Virtual Fighter 5 with your friends. Be sure to check out the i8910HD and Omnia II phones which are available for hands-on demo sessions; they’re not officially launched in Singapore until later in July.

Joe Augustin of Morning Jam fame will also be gracing the Samsung booth on Saturday from 3 to 5pm where he will get the public to play some stage games and win up to 100 hours worth of free gaming vouchers from Game Haven.

Intel Dell Public Challenge

Right next to the Samsung booth is the Intel-Dell Alienware booth where the public can register to take part in a mini-competition featuring the GRID racing game and a 2-on-2 Call of Duty 4 challenge. The winner of the challenges will get a Dell Inspiron mini 9 netbook as a prize. Registration starts at 10am on Saturday and Sunday, with each Challenge beginning at the top of the hour start from 6pm on Saturday and 12pm on Sunday.

This is also the perfect opportunity for you to check out the flashy Dell Alienware M17x gaming laptops, only just recently launched in Singapore.

Cherry Credits Cherry Picks

When you’re bored of gaming activities, take a break at the Cherry Credits booth with your friends for a change of pace. You’ll be asked to “fish” for balloons with a magnetic “fishing rod”, along with your friends. Everyone gets to walk away with goodie bags containing exclusive game merchandise, such as a Gunbound paper figurine kit and 1,000CC worth of game credits. However, the person who picks out the most number of ballons within one minute will get to win additional prizes. We heard from the Cherry Credits staff that one of these mystery prizes include a Logitech Rumblepad, so you just might be rewarded with something special!

Retail Deals

Lastly, before you leave, be sure to look out for some great deals on games and hardware at the retail section of TGX. Some great deals we found include Street Fighter IV for PC at only S$39.90 and iPhone screen protectors at S$5 each. Replay Interactive is putting up selected Nintend DS games at a special one-for-one deal, including recently released Age of Empires Mythologies, and giving away a free t-shirt and sling bag with every purchase of S$80 and above in a single receipt.